Day 10

It may be only a powder coating of snow, but it is enough to get the 9YO's football tournament in Newcastle cancelled, which means lucky Des the Decorator has got me thrusting paint samples in his face all day instead.

He knows his stuff, our Des. The best in the business according to House Candy Andy and so far I'm inclined to agree.

Our current thinking (if I'm letting the decorator have a say in the paint choice, he must be good) is to go with the same colour of the kitchen units for the panelling and soon-to-be-made MDF shelves. The rest of the room will be a more subtle, pale grey shade.

The kitchen extension is a huge, south facing room with lots of light so it can take a deep colour. The guy at Magnet told me that the Newbury Midnight shade is colour matched to Farrow and Ball's Railings, which I used to have on my chimney breast in the kitchen. I've tested his theory and it's bang on. Railings is a rich black/blue and pretty much goes with anything. It's made me love my kitchen just a little bit more.

For the rest of the walls, I'm thinking classic Elephant's Breath, but for today it's still all go with the white undercoat on House Candy Andy's extra deep coving, handmade architraves and the skirtings, which today he added extra depth to, without even asking. (He's like that, you'll get used to him).

I'm quickly learning what HCA, Decorator Des and my Great Auntie Valda (who has been politely "sticking her oar in," as she calls it) already know about period properties. "The devil is in the detail, dear", she says. And if the right paint combination can turn a bare plastered shell into something like the image below in time for Christmas, I'll feel like a very lucky devil indeed.